Tuesday:

> What were the political charges against Jesus?

According to the Gospel of Matthew, when jesus was born, Herod the Great set out to kill every infant in Bethlehem. The Massacre of the Innocents occurred because the Magi announced that a new king of the Jews had been born. Herod wanted to kill the infant so as to protect his throne from an usurper. This is the first attempted killing of Jesus on political accounts, since Herod saw the new king of the Jews as a political threat. It must be noted that biographers of Herod the Great deny the event took place since there are no records of it outside the gospel of Matthew.

When Jesus was captured, the Sanhedrin (Council of the Jews) accuse him, find him guilty and sentence him to death because Jesus had claimed to be the Son of God. Jesus was sent to Pontius Pilate for trial. Pontius Pilate sends him to Herod Antipas (son of Herod the Great) because Jesus fell under Herod's jurisdiction. Herod Antipas mocks Jesus for not wanting to perform miracles for him, and sends Jesus back to Pilate. Pontius Pilate found Jesus innocent of any crime under Roman Law. However, the mob demands the release of Barabbas (a rioter, revolutionary and criminal) instead of Jesus. Politically, Barabbas opposed the Roman occupation, so to the crowd he would have been a favorite. The killing of Jesus was orchestrated by Caiphas, a Roman-appointed Jewish high priest.

What would be the political reasons for killing Jesus?
1. Pontius Pilate wanted to give the mob what it wanted instead of dealing with a rebellion caused by the incarceration of Barabbas.
2. Herod Antipas (like his father Herod the Great) would execute anyone claiming to be the King of the Jews. Otherwise the people could accept somebody else as king rather than himself.
3. Caiphas would execute anyone claiming to be the son of God because that would mean that there was somebody with a closer relationship to God than Caiphas had in his role as high priest.
4. The mob wanted a known rebel and rioter like Barabbas freed because he was more likely to oppose Roman domination than a pacifist like Jesus.

> Was anyone else crucified for claiming to be who he was?

The Gospels mention false prophets living during the time of Jesus. There were men performing feats of magic and claiming to be the Messiah. The Gospels do not indicate the fate of those men because the focus of the Gospels is on the life of Jesus. In all likelyhood, men like that would be incarcerated or killed for opposing the power of the Herods and the high priests. Jesus would not have been the only one to claim to be the Son of God or the Messiah. Of course, to Christians Jesus is the true Son of God and the Messiah, but to the Jews in Judea of 2000 years ago Jesus would have been one more heretic making grandiose claims.

It must be noted that neither the Massacre of the Innocents, nor the existence of Jesus Christ or Jesus Barabbas, or the practice of freeing prisoners during Passover are mentioned anywhere else outside the New Testament. Historically, none of the events can be proven by corroboration with historical records from that era.

As an aside: Coincidentally, Barabbas was actually called Jesus bar-Abbas. Jesus was a common name. The actual Hebrew is יְהוֹשֻׁעַ (Yĕhōšuă‘, Joshua), Jesus being the latinized version of the Hellenic transliteration of the name.